President Maduro, with help of Supreme Court, tries to institute one-man rule

Venezuelan security forces clashed with protesters on the streets of Caracas as thousands gathered on Tuesday to protest the Venezuelan Supreme Court’s decision to take power away from the country’s legislature. Since then, the court has reversed some of the more disputed parts of its ruling on Saturday, reports The New York Times. Still, crowds gathered again in a large middle-class district of Caracas to accuse President Nicolás Maduro of trying to use the courts to institute one-man rule.

“Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court, full of Maduro loyalists, removed all powers from the legislature, finding it in contempt and giving the judges authority to write laws. Mr. Maduro and the Assembly had been at odds since the opposition took control of the chamber in early 2016,” says The Times.

Image credit: AFP news agency, screen grab, YouTube
Armed pro-government gangs joined the National Guard and national police who fired tear gas and sent trucks mounted with water cannons into the crowds. Mr. Maduro’s own attorney general, Luisa Ortega, described the ruling as a “rupture of the constitutional order.”